Next to the exhortation at the beginning of Moby-Dick, "Call me Ishmael," the first sentence of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice must be among the most quoted in literature. And certainly what Melville did for whaling Austen does for marriage--tracing the intricacies (not to mention the economics) of 19th-century British mating rituals with a sure...more

From the author of The Ghost Map and Everything Bad Is Good for You, a new national bestseller: the "exhilarating"( Los Angeles Times) story of "a founding father long forgotten."(Newsweek)National bestselling author Steven Johnson tells the fascinating story of Joseph Priestley-scientist and theologian, protégé of Benjamin Franklin, friend of Th...more